Lately I've really been feeling the pinch of being a parent of two kids. The Baby is nearly 17 months, and really coming into his own, climbing everything, saying lots of words (shoe, fridge, bye, brush, up, nose, no, bird) communicating through screeches and clicks whenever his 'words' don't do the trick. Determined, adamant, very sure of himself. Positive he can do anything his brother can.
And the Little Dude is, of course, four. So grown up and yet still circumstantially dependant. Very focused in his play. Really sure of what he wants (and does not want). Sometimes moody. Prone to quick changes of likes and dislikes. Also, loves singing (Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, is the current favourite) and making jokes. Finds farts hysterically funny. Plays alone for long stretches of time, but then also wants someone to play with him.
The trick of course, is balancing both their needs. And I feel like its a losing battle quite often. Throw the fact that we need to eat and wear clean clothing into the mix and there is never enough time. I try to get out of my "need to get stuff done" mindset and just be with them, but that is such a tough trick in and of itself when being with them means trying to do two completely different things at once. The Little Dude wants me to engage in whatever creative narrative he's got going on, staring Thomas the Tank Engine or perhaps a grand farming endeavor, and the Baby wants to explore the world by climbing it, with nary a concern about falling. And also, he'd like to disassemble whatever imaginary world the Little Dude is building. So between keeping the Baby from killing himself and keeping The Little Dude from killing the Baby it seems like no one is getting quality time, even when I'm not trying to hang out the laundry.
So I decided that the Little Dude and I needed some time alone. I get time alone with the Baby pretty regularly when my Mom takes the Little Dude to her house for the morning, as she does at least once a week. Then I get to hang out with the Baby and play all our favourite games like pointing out the window at things, smelling plants, squishing food, and squealing happily at pictures of babies. All such fun. And of course, I'm still breast feeding him about four times a day, and even though it is brief (never more than ten minutes) its our special time together to smile and coo and hang out.
There is a commuter train that leaves our sleepy little bedroom town each morning, and comes back each night, full of people who work in Toronto. We hear it blast its horn morning and night, and if we are in the play ground at just the right moment we see it go whizzing by across the street. The Little Dude adores trains, and has quite frequently asked to ride on it. I assured him that some day when he was big enough, we would take that train to Toronto and visit a Museum. We have talked about it hypothetically many times, but this week we felt it was time to make it a reality. My Mom was kind enough to clear her schedule so that she could take care of the Baby. And so, on Tuesday morning, the Little Dude and I were at the train station, bright and early, our bags packed and our hearts light.
We waited by the tracks.
And tried out the benches.
And finally, chugging and hooting and bigger than he EVER imagined it would be, the train pulled up to the platform. Suddenly, Mr. Independence was standing very, very close to me.
We got on the train, and climbed up the the second floor and found a seat amongst the world-weary commuters. His eyes almost never left that window. So fascinating to be able to see all around us. And so much to see, the fields and the tractors eventually giving way to construction sites and backhoes. Backyards and graffiti-ed fences. Roof tops and tree tops. Bridges and tunnels, and endless questions and excitement. I'm sure the rest of the regular train-travelers were not accustomed to being entertained (or alternately annoyed) by the endless stream of running commentary delivered in breathless, high-pitched, little-boy excitement.
When we finally reached the city and disembarked among many more people than we had boarded with, we took another train (the Subway) to the Museum stop. But since we took the commuter train in, we were there over and hour before the ROM was due to open. Luckily, we have a cousin who lives high up in one of the nearby buildings and headed up to her apartment for tea. Oh, and to enjoy the view.
And such a view! It was great to be able to point out the CN tower that we'd just arrived pretty much directly under, in our commuter train. And also to show him the cool, though somewhat architecturally schizophrenic building that we would be visiting shortly.
Finally 10:00 rolled around and we headed down to see the dinosaurs. They were big, and interesting, though really, with a four year old you whip through a museum at breakneck speed. I'd been worried that we wouldn't have the time or energy to see much, but in actuality, I don't think there was a floor in that museum we didn't visit. Though he was not interested in everything.
Dinosaurs: Interesting, but only for a minute.
Taxidermied Bird Diorama: Also interesting.
Fossilized Poop: Very interesting.
Hands-on archeology demonstration with goggles and a little brush and actual sand: Really, really interesting.
Small exhibit of antique toy soldiers and vehicles. MOST INTERESTING OF ALL! We had to visit it twice. He'd have gone back a third time, but it was several floors up from where we ended and I had to draw the line somewhere.
They were really, really cool. I wish they'd had something like them in the gift shop, instead of just a lot of dinosaur related paraphernalia.
Oh, and incidentally, what was not interesting was almost anything that I wanted to see. We took a brief detour away from the Natural History type stuff into the European exhibits. We moved quickly through the Knights and Armor and onto more contemporary interiors and textile stuff and he was very emphatic that this was NOT what he wanted to see. "Quickly Mommy," he admonished as I stopped to look at some Anni Albers prints and mid-century tableware, "we need to hurry back that way. RIGHT now. Don't dawdle!" Sheesh. Now I know what he feels like when I'm trying to get him through the mall quickly. I really like the ROM. Say what you will about the architectural mash-up, (not everyone likes the Daniel Libeskind "Crystal" addition to the original 1930's-ish Neo-Romanesque building) but I like the old...
...and the new.
They both make for equally good photo-ops.
After a long and exciting day, we retraced out train journey, had many borderline philosophical conversations about whether we were going backwards or not, since we were facing forwards, and got home absolutely exhausted, but very pleased with our day. Had cereal for dinner (because its ready instantly, is relatively healthy and did I mention it is fast?) and then tucked the tired-est little boy in the world into bed where he slept like a log and dreamed of dinosaurs.
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