Floods Cause Change of Plans

I'm sure many of you have noticed our region of the world is experiencing some serious flooding. The rain started seemingly a week ago, and pretty much hasn't stopped since. We went from drought conditions to extreme saturation. When I stepped on the grass last night, as I let Laura out, water covered my foot. And yes, our basement is wet again, too. Some local places have it much worse, with actual flood condition, but our home is on a subtle hill, with a marsh catching the excess water effectively.

Yesterday we had big plans to see Thomas the Tank Engine at the "2007 Day Out with Thomas," as well as attend a local craft fair and chicken BBQ. We left the house early, and I walked the whole wet craft fair in 10 minutes. We then ran a few errands, and headed towards Union, IL, the location of the event with Thomas. Meanwhile, we explained to Ben that he must nap in the car or he would not see Thomas that day. He fell asleep eventually, and we got all the way into town when we found police officers handing out strips of paper explaining the train museum was flooded, and the Thomas event was cancelled. Theo and I spent a few minutes discussing how we should tell Ben, agreeing we had to broach the subject with him because he needed to learn that life does come along with some disappointments. I didn't know if he'd understand "floods," but we do know he understands people sometimes get under the weather.

We made a pee-stop at a gas station, and the car door opening woke up Ben. Before he could get his wits about him and begin asking where Thomas was we passed an ambulance with sirens on. Theo and I acted quickly, explaining to Benjamin the ambulance was going to take care of Sir Topham Hat (man who runs the trains), who was a little sick, but he "was going to be okay, we'd just have to come back and see Thomas next week. Mommy and Daddy are going to try and find something fun to do instead of see Thomas today, but we promise we'll see him next week." Ben loves ambulances, and knows they help people, so this idea worked really well.

You should have seen the look on Ben's face. It was a definite turning point for him, as I believe he experienced true empathy for the first time. As most toddlers would have begun screaming "I want to see Thomas now!" Ben's eyes welled-up with tears, and his chin did a little shiver as he was genuinely more concerned that TopHam Hat would be okay. He repeated what I said, verbatim, including the word "instead," making him sound way-too-cute. Instantly his focus was on what mom and dad would find to do today. We were so impressed, and even had a little parent tears of our own.

In the gas station I glanced at a map, to see if I could come up with any idea of where to spend our rainy afternoon. I remembered seeing online that Rockford had a children's museum! Perfect! We went there and spent the remainder of the afternoon playing with the exhibits geared directly at the kids. The boys both had a blast:

On our way Hunter indulged in yogurt covered pretzels. Yeah, not the greatest idea.

When we arrived Hunter found this magnetic board very interesting.

He also loved the hall of mirrors.

The museum had this cool staircase, where kids could navigate through the underpinnings of the steps by pulling themselves up or down through holes on various levels. Very cool.

At the top of the steps Ben found a wooden Thomas set. He was so excited!

When we could pull him away from the trains he found some cool areas, like this child-sized house, complete with toasters, microwaves, fake foods, and all...

Lots of water features, indoor and out, too.

This may have been mom's favorite part, a Papa John's place run entirely by toddlers. Here Ben gets his apron and visor for work.

Here he's hard at work.

This things timed how long kids could hang. Ben hung for 38 seconds, and Hunter for 15, I think.

Ben was so pumped to find a real crane and dump truck filled he could run all by himself. He jumped right in, helping the crane operator kid by loading these plastic things into his basket. The kids next to Ben gave him a hard hat, too. They even had those fluorescent vests road workers wear. Very realistic. Cool!

As a break in the rain came we ran outside to enjoy a huge wooden maze of paths, steps, ramps, and even caves.

Before we headed back inside Ben explored this archeologist's vehicle complete with the tools to find dinosaurs; it sat beside a real sandbox with dinosaur bones and tools. Wow.

On our way back in Ben ran full-speed into this construction zone, containing another crane kids could operate all alone.

This was a huge pin cushion kids could push into and make imprints (I had a mini-version made of metal I got from Spencer's gifts when I was in junior high?) The kids all laughed and pressed their whole bodies up against this thing.

This museum certainly made the kids forget all about Thomas. And as a family, we went for pizza right after... Chicago style, Giordano's. Yummy. A good day after all.