Hope: One Less: Day 18

Chris and I were both up early today so we could get some work done before she woke up. She slept late and had white rice and 1/2 a banana for breakfast. We were slow to get loaded up and out of the house as I'm sure most people with children can relate to. We made a quick stop at my office and Joyce gave her another toy. We had a couple of other errands to run and we purchased her some new shades for the car. We continued on to STL. Even with her SeaBand bracelet, she had some motion sickness near Vandalia but the rest of the trip was smooth sailing. She took a short nap as we got closer to STL. We arrived just in time for lunch and opted to go to Culver's for chicken strips and french fries. She was not very interested in eating or what we ordered.

Our first "vacation" stop was to The Magic House. This was our third children's museum in a week due to poor planning (and trying to let her experience everything during her short stay) and we noticed some repetition. After three hours, she still had no desire to leave. We visited the bubble room, went grocery shopping, played with sand, visited the baby room/hospital nursery (this was a favorite for giving baby a bath, a bottle, changing diaper, etc.), played in the water, played with balls, looked at the fishies, climbed and went down a couple of slides, touched an electrically charged ball, sat on the witness stand, pretended to be a judge (the highlight for both of these was talking into the microphone), visiting the oval office, making sounds on the giant wheel, and visiting the Very Hungry Caterpillar exhibit (we have read this book a few times). A couple of times later in the afternoon, she would point to random little girls and say "Kinsley." I think she was missing her BFF. It was a great experience and we are glad we went. Chris and I were exhausted after chasing her around for three hours.

We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner so she could have rice. She was equally interested in Chris' General Tso's Chicken. One of the employees was very social and kept talking to her in Mandarin. We think she understood, but she never would respond to him. We got checked into our hotel and she was excited to walk through the sliding entrance doors. We showed her the pool and she got extremely excited. After a quick change into her swimming suit and floaties, she was eager to get started. We were fortunate to have the pool to ourselves and the water felt like bath water. She "swam" back and forth between us and practiced kicking her feet. It was fun but only lasted about twenty minutes. She started saying "night, night." We got her to bed early for a change so she can be rested up for her big day tomorrow.