Technorama, eventually

I awoke this morning to a little hand on my shoulder: Ella.

"I really hate to do this mom, but I think you should probably get up now.  It's almost 8:30. Did you get enough sleep?"

What's that, now? Apparently, my awesome daughter had taken care of the boys for an hour an a half this morning.  And last night, exhausted, I fell asleep a just little after 9:30.  I'd just slept for almost eleven hours.  And I felt AWESOME.

My morning coffee could wait as I cheerfully made the kiddos waffles.  And not even the steady rain outside could get me down.  I totally had a plan, you see: I was going to take the kids to Winterthur, to the Technorama science museum.

Ella kept herself and Alex amused with a little marble
maze that she made this morning

Except, apparently, regardless of how much sleep I get, I'm still utterly hopeless when it comes to navigation.  When the S12 train that I was waiting for showed up four minutes early, I didn't question it: we hopped on, only to discover that we were going in the wrong direction.  So we hopped off again, and then discovered that the next train wouldn't be for nearly half an hour...thirty minutes in the drizzly cold.  To their credit, when I apologized and explained to the kids, none of them complained.

They looked slightly mutinous (but still held their tongues) after my second mistake: I didn't notice that the S12 train line forks Winterthur, and the train that we boarded took the wrong direction.  So although we were still in the right city, we were on the wrong side of the outskirts, a fact that could only be remedied by another long walk and a bumpy bus ride in that lovely weather.

But, in the end, there was science!

Unfortunately, the museum was at least ten times as crowded as it was during our last visit, filled with other parents hiding from the weather, as well as many buses of campers. But I somehow managed to keep track of my kids, who spent most of their time with those wonderful wooden toys on the top floor, but I think the boys' favorite part was a little in the brainteaser section, where they had a Missionaries and Cannibals river-crossing puzzle, although they used a somewhat more benign version.

Alex spent a moment trying to figure out the puzzle, but it quickly dissolved into a puppet show for his brother. "Oh, please don't eat me, Mr. Wolf! "I won't eat you! I'm a vegetarian! I'm going to eat cabbage!" "Hey! That's my cabbage! Hands off, Wolfy!" "Okay...then...I'm going to eat JOEY!"

And Joey, who was watching this all, delighted, called out "Hey! I....I...I not CABBAGE!" and threw the wolf across the room.

And scene.


Back at home, Ella returned to her xylophone this evening.  After the first two rounds of "Bruder Jakob," I quickly made good on my resolution, scribbling out the first few bars of "Love Me Tender."  She had it memorized in five minutes, and demanded more and more, working her way through six little songs.  During her shower, she continued her practicing, belting out an operatic version of Hot Cross Buns.

I feel bad: she's been wanting piano lessons for ages, but I'd decided to make her wait until we move back to Kirkland to do start that up: it's just a little too much to manage, here.  And I also feel bad that she's playing on such a dinky little one-octave instrument.  Part of me wants to go out and see if I can't find her a better xylophone, at least. But she's so proud of her precious garage sale find, that I think I'd better just let it be, and let her enjoy herself.