After breakfast, we swam for a while. Ian will not get in the water, which is a little bit frustrating when he is running circles around the pool. It is, however, manageable, when he is dipping his feet in the hot tub:
It was also Miah's first time in a pool... well... sort of in a pool... but come on... her swimsuit's cute...
Later in the morning, we left for "The Magic House," St. Louis' Children's Museum. Overall, I am still kind of partial to the Indy Children's Museum, but The Magic House was inexpensive, fun, and there were some very innovative exhibits. We especially enjoyed "The Oval Office," Leaf Climbing, and the Static Electricity Experiment:
Ian loved dressing up in a cape and boots and playing "Super Ian" through several more areas of the "Kids Save the World" exhibit than you are really supposed to keep the costumes on for, I'm sure...
Unfortunately, a little later in our trip, "Super Ian" decided it would be alright to run away from Daddy and his super siblings (while Mommy was nursing Miah), and for 4-5 minutes, no one knew where he was. 4-5 minutes is a very long time when you cannot find your 3 year old in a place that big with so many children running in every conceivable direction. It feels more like an hour... at least... and it is certainly long enough to contact employees and the front desk and to have your child's description running through the entire employee intercom system. To say the least, I was relieved when I found Ian (quite a long way from where we'd last seen him). I was so relieved that I chewed him out and banished him to his baby sister's pink stroller for the remainder of our day at The Magic House.
This did put some things into perspective, however. As I was frantically flying through exhibits, I kept thinking, "If Ian has left this building I am never going to find him and we will never see him again". Panic was definitely the best way to describe it, but later I thought of the parable of the lost sheep. Now, granted, I didn't have 99 children to leave while I went to look for the one lost one, and I was toting Miah, but I did leave my other three children playing at an exhibit (with instructions to stay put) in order to cover as much ground as possible to find Ian. Ordinarily, I would not let even my older kids out of my sight in a place like this for more than a moment, but at the time, it seemed more reasonable to leave them in order to find my lost one. On a lesser level, but pertinent all the same, I also left our stroller which contained Miah's carseat, my purse (wallet, cash, credit cards, ID, SS card, etc.), our video camera, my digital SLR, and my underwater camera strewn in the middle of a crowded hallway, and the truth is; I would have been irritated if anything had been missing when I finally went back for it, but in light of finding Ian, I couldn't have cared less if the whole thing was gone. Guess I must love him, even if he is a hurricane...
Not long after our little incident, we left, because quite frankly; Phil and I were spent.
We found a Quik Trip on the way back, which resulted in me reaffirming my love for frozen juice and hiking my "souvenir" spending to $1.34 for the day (must add souvenir penny from earlier). I think I'm gonna need one of those frozen juices every night...
Tomorrow, we're going to chill...
Lisa
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