The options ran through our heads – we wanted the kids to see the tour and I really didn’t want Petie to miss it so I could either just hang around with her purse or….the numbers clicked. It had taken us 15 minutes to get there and we had (a little less than) 30 minutes until the tour started. I said, “I’m just going to run for it – I should make it.” Hopefully being able to run instead of carrying kids would make up for having to go back up to our room and putting the purse away in the safe.
We quickly agreed that I’d meet them there after the tour if I didn’t make it back in time and I started to take off down the street. After about half a step I realized something and called back to Petie, “uh, I’m going to look like a purse snatcher!” Going along with the role play, I tucked the purse under my arm and ran from the law.
I’m sure I looked pretty odd running with a purse through the streets of Downtown Denver as most people were making their way to work on a Monday morning. I guess it was pretty unlikely that I would be purse snatching in broad daylight so any strange looks were probably more like “why is he in a hurry and why does he carry a purse?”
I made the roundtrip in about 20 minutes and arrived, winded, in time. One of the Mint workers obviously had a heads-up that I was coming and said “ah, you made it.” Several of the people on the tour greeted me when I went through security as well. Apparently the girls were distraught and were worried I wouldn’t make it.
We enjoyed the tour and I recommend visiting if you are in Denver – just make reservations….and don’t bring a purse.
One of the things we wanted to do while in Denver this summer was to visit the U.S. Mint. Petie fondly recalls her trip to the Bureau of Engraving in Washington, D.C. and thought that the girls would enjoy it.
Who knew how popular these tours were? A month in advance most of the tours were full. Luckily, I was able to score 4 spots in the 8 a.m. tour on the Monday we were scheduled to leave.
I pulled out the tickets the night before and noted that we were not allowed to bring purses or backpacks. Usually we have both with us, so that was important to remember.
We leave the hotel at 7:00 a.m. which is early, but when the kids are ready, they’re ready to GO. As luck would have it between catching all the lights and not having to wait for a bus we find ourselves across the street from the Mint at 7:15. It’s locked down and there is nothing around really (except for a long line of those hoping to get on the waitlist…ha ha) so we walk around the block.
Elise is asking to be carried by Petie so she asks if I can hold her purse. Uh oh. We both realize the problem – purses not allowed. Being the optimist I said “C’mon, they HAVE to have a locker or something we can rent.”
At 7:30, the open up the building so people with the 8:00 tour can start going through security procedures. Petie was right. “Sorry, you’ll have to take the purse back to your car, ” the security guard said. Petie and I gave each other a helpless look. “How far away are you parked?”, he wondered. Uh, we are staying at the Hotel Monaco across town. The security guard wasn’t budging. We wouldn’t be able to make the tour after all.
A situation many parents dread – your child wakes you up in the morning or emerges from her room distraught. “The tooth fairy didn’t come last night!” Uh oh.
There is a solution – Petie was over at a friend’s house last week when their daughter came out and said “the tooth fairy didn’t come AGAIN!” Apparently this was two nights in a row. Petie quickly responded, “Oh you didn’t see the e-mail? The tooth fairy is on vacation.” Props to her for that quick thinking.
I wasn’t there but she volunteered me to create the e-mail that the person “must have missed”. So if anyone runs into the problem, I have toothfairyhouston@gmail.com
See below for your template if you create your own – you can always backdate and change the from e-mail address if you forward it.
==================================
May 21, 2010
Dear Parents,
As a reminder I will be on vacation from Monday, May 24th through Saturday, June 5th. If there are any teeth lost during that time period please let your children know that I will be back on Sunday night, June 6th.
April 18, 2010 at 7:12 pm
· Filed under elise, funny
Up until recently, we were more likely to be able to fool Elise even if it meant changing what we had said before. Now she’s old enough to remember what we said and hold it against us – something that will be great for her and horrible for us when she’s a teenager.
For now, though, it’s more humorous as she calls us out. On Easter Sunday we heard two such instances. During the day Elise and Joelle were having a fight about dyeing Easter Eggs. At one point Joelle stormed into the house saying, “Elise, you RUINED MY DAY!!” That night when Petie asked Joelle if she had a good day, she said “Yes.” Elise immediately piped in and said, confused, “but I ruined your day.”
Later as we were finishing up Easter dinner my mom said, “I’m full.” A few minutes later Elise asked her if she wanted to go and play. My mom said “I can in a few minutes, I’m going to have dessert.” Elise retorted, “but you said you were full!”
Usually on the weekends the girls both wake up around 7:00 or so. Joelle goes into the playroom and plays quietly. Elise, on the other hand, usually stumbles into our bedroom and whines (as if we woke her up) “I wanna watch tv, wanna sausage patty, want my choca milk”. If you don’t have everything done within about 30 seconds she barks out orders because surely you didn’t hear her the first time. Progress on one front just means you aren’t doing one of the other tasks.
A couple of weekends ago she came out of her room at 7 and quietly padded down the hall. I played possum. I heard her pad down the hallway with the light jingle of her bear accompanying her. She came to the place in the hall where she was standing between the door of the playroom and the door of our bedroom.
She studied her options and opened up the playroom door. I heard Joelle say something and Elise replied “Yeah.” I was given a reprieve to snooze by the girls for the first time I could remember. Sure Elise proceeded to open the playroom, do a lap around the house and slam the door shut every five minutes after that, but it’s progress…
As parents, we are constantly seeing ourselves in our children. Often, I think Elise is more like Chris, but bringing out all the Christmas hoopla yesterday made me realize that really, children are bits and pieces of both parents and then they have a little dash of their own spice to boot. I say this because she started playing with all the ornaments on the tree. She moves them around and starts having them talk to each other and interact. I used to do the same thing. It makes me smile to see her do it. Joelle is territorial over the ornaments that are her ornaments, but I keep fighting to let Lis play with all of them. I remember how much fun it was.
Little Elise is almost completely done with the baby phase. She has diapers to conquer…and that’s about it. Recently, she pulled out an old forgotten binky from a backpack. Needless to say, we didn’t know it was there. Chris held his breath to see if she would remember her addiction and pop it back in her mouth. Instead, she said, “it’s a bink and put it down.” She used to also insist that all pictures of Elise or Joelle as a baby were her. However, we were in the playroom recently and she started naming off who was in each picture. “That’s a picture of Joelle with a face. That’s a picture of Joelle with a dance band…he he. That’s a picture of Nana and Papa.” She mysteriously stopped before acknowledging the last picture (which was of Joelle as a baby and a picture of Chris that actually doesn’t really look like him.) I said, “Lisie, who is in the last picture?” She said, “Two people.” I pressed further and she clearly didn’t really know. Finally, she said, “I know… it’s Unkey Joey and a baby!” She would have insisted it was a picture of her not so long ago…
August 27, 2009 at 7:26 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Joelle got her first lunch visit of the year from Petie and Elise. Petie said it was cute because 1st grade lunch is between K and Pre-K lunchtimes so you get to see all the little kids come in. I also learned that once you get to first grade you don’t have to sit with your class, you can sit wherever you want – whoa.
I was putting Joelle to bed tonight and she said “too bad you couldn’t come to lunch, maybe you could come sometime soon like in September or October”. I said, “maybe next week even?” Joelle quickly shot that down, “mmm, maybe in a couple or three weeks? Because mommy just came this week and there are some kids whose parents come like all the time.” (inferring that that is seen as undesirable)
“So you like it more spread out, huh?”, I inquired. Joelle explained: “Yeah, I mean these kids should have plenty of mommy time when they get home and on the weekends so they don’t need to come to lunch like EVERY week, right??”
Next thing I know when I come to her school I’ll get the “wassup?” upward head tilt instead of a hug
Remember back when we were little and we would settle down after bathtime and watch YouTube videos? No? Well I don’t remember how this started but now between bathtime and storytime the kids beg to watch some funny videos that we have shown them.
