Year 2, Day 162: Change of Plans

What a day! It started with Abishai getting up early again and running into the fireside room to wake up “E” (Ethan). He sat on the couch cushions next to the couch, dangling his legs, with a wide smile on his face saying, “E! E! E!” Ethan had to leave fairly early, so I let Abishai wake him up. After Ethan left and Benaiah went to Grandpa's house to mow, we blew up the new family sized pool for the kids to start playing in. The water was cold, but Abishai did get in it. At first, he didn't want his shorts to get wet (they could be considered swim shorts), so I took those off and put on a cloth swim diaper and he was fine with that. He did get in and out of the pool many times, left lots of grass in the pool, and sat in the water. We didn't fill it up all the way because we do have to dump it after 2-3 days. It's not a pool that has chemicals that you leave up all summer. But, it looks simliar to all the other pools we have had in years' past, so, lots of new memories to make with it!

While they were in the pool, I stayed nearby in the sunroom and got that room sorted out and the bookshelves in place. I had to pull a couple of boxes to other rooms, but it's now done. I then went and started doing the same in the garage. I feel like I'm at a standstill because either I can't lift things, or I have no idea where something goes or I don't want to get it out because I don't have a non brown constainer for it (trying to transition to non brown/moving boxes for regular storage!) I don't want to put out knick knacks and pictures yet. We just finalized the rooms tonight, so I can go ahead and do the china cabinet and the DVDs/CDs/VHS etc. on the bookshelves, as well as finish the electronics hookup. I can't wait to get into Keturah's room this week and sort it like I did the boys' room into categories like stuffed animals, Legos, her Barbies, my Barbies, and other stuff. I plan to condense the use of brown boxes in that room as well. Perhaps put stuff on the top shelves of her closet. Maybe some of her stuffed animals could sit up there out of the way. Hm,....

Then Abishai had his nap, and we made the last minute decision to go to the Indy South (Greenwood) Municipial Airport for their free movie in an airplane hangar, touch a fire truck/ambulance/police car, and get in a small airplane! All for free! Abishai couldn't get enough of the fire truck and ambulance! He could not have cared less for the airplanes. We saw many private planes just right there in their parking spots. This tiny airstrip is for private planes only. But it is now owned by the same company that owns the Indianapolis International Airport and the other small airport in Mt. Comfort. Anyway, when the fire truck left, the only thing Abishai could say was, “Bye-bye, wee-oo, wee-oo!” The movie was 3 short animated episodes of “Tale Spin” from the early '90's. But the kids got interested and wanted to stay until the end. Oh, and we also saw a life line helicopter hover and do a fly by! And the middle kids got to sit in an airplane that is owned and opearted by the local Civil Air Patrol unit. My brother Paul-Mikael was part of a unit in New Hampshire when he was a teenager. There were a couple of other vendors there, including Usborne books of all things. And Sam's Club and AT&T. But anyway, it was fun and free and we'll go to church tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a big day with church, lunch with the inlaws, then dropping Keturah off at summer camp for the week! I had to help her finish packing today, but she got the majority of it herself. Yeah! It should be a hotter (in the 90's!) but quieter week this week. Lots of little projects to work on and I need to keep up with housework, too. We are still working on gettng a routine going, especially me with my paperwork and phone chargers and being all over the place all the time. 2 more days until wifi! Yeah!

All night gaming? No, they were done last night by 12:30am, but talked until 3 am.

Wake up, E!

Time to play! Get, E! 

"Baba, <enter cutting off head sund>, <his way of saying Benaiah.>" Basically, I'm typing out the caption and he indicates that Benaiah is killing Justin.

Memories! We had almost the exact same pool at the Beech Grove house for many years.  You have to clean it out every 2-3 days, but it's worth it! 

Whoops! He got caught!

Woah! Big wa-we!

It's cold!  It's cold!

It's dangerous to play with a water toy when you are fully clothed, Keturah.  Whoops!

Brothers, twinning.

In less than 5 minutes, he's mastered how to get in and out of the pool.

Getting some ammo.

Pew, pew!  I bet I have many a picture of the other kids this size doing this.  Cute!

Having fun with Daddy on a high shelf.  He was a bit scared, but not as scared as the others would have been.

Best game ever!  Jump over a very tired and delirious kid and make him laugh hysterically!

Nice corporate jet!

Abishai wasn't so sure of the fire truck and ambulance at first.  I don't think he realized how big these real machines are with all their gadgets.  But he did warm up to them eventually.  I can't wait for us to do touch a truck in a few weeks!  He's going to love it!

I tried to tell him that he was in an ambulance within an hour of being born (which was on of the worst 15 minutes rides of my life!)  The story goes, I was on the stretcher, laying on my back which is NOT good when you have just given birth and needing to deliver the placenta.  I was holding Abishai of course.  The poor young medic was trying to encourage me to nurse Abishai and I simply said, I know I should, but I can't right now.  He's my 4th kid and I've successfully nursed the others, he'll be fine.  It was so cold out, too, with the huge snow banks on either side of the driveway and roads.  Abishai's temp was low when we arrived at the hospital, and it took about 24 hrs to bring it up and stabilize it.  I hope that that is the one and only time he and I (or anyone of us) need to use an ambulance.  Great times!

I don't think Abishai has seen a firefighter in full gear before, at least when he was old enough to remember.  I'll need to take him to the fire house and police station on a field trip at some point (I could organize one with our homeschool group because we have a lot of young ones!)  I LOVE the fire house and police station and seeing the behind the scenes of how it all works.

Abishai also loved the police car, probably because it reminded him of the police car and chases in the game "Need for Speed."  When they left, he kept saying, "Bye, wee-oo wee-oo." over and over and over.

Propeller plane!  And one wing had a radar bulge on it.

Ready for the movie!  Benaiah was working tech at church and would have been bored anyway.

Humongous hangar door!  I don't think I've been in one this big before!  I believe I've been in a private hangar and maybe one another one at some point.  Or I've watched too many movies with plane hangars in them.

Abishai was very cautious of getting close the airplane that the kids could sit in.  The line was super long to get in it, so we just went up and touched it.

The tiniest little touch there is. 

Civil Air Patrol!  My brother was in that group in NH!  Great program!

More police car action for Mr. Restless.

Sparky, the "robot" dog that can interact with kids.  The voice was sitting in the truck behind it.  Abishai was ok with it.

First time in a fire truck!  He didn't stay long, but he wasn't afraid of it either.  Cool! 

I'm touching the wing of a plane that has touched the clouds, woot! Woot!

Stretch!

I'm flying!  The middles really liked getting into the plane.  The line was finally shorter towards the end of the evening.  A Facebook post said that there were 800 people there that night!

Justin thought the passenger seat would be the safest place to be.  He's not afraid if he can be close to something, like the wall.  But right outside of that wall, buddy, is the sky.  I'd be scared to death!

Ok, time to be Captain Justin.  The seats were almost exactly like seats in a car!  Easy to adjust back and forth.  Interesting!  And they both noticed that when you move one joystick, the other one moves in the same direction.  They do because what if they didn't?  You wouldn't go anywhere!

The Lifeline helicopter did a fly by and hovered for a moment.  It didn't land though.  The hospital is just a block away, and I don't know if they would land at this airstrip or on the top of the hospital or beside it or what.  I'd have to look into it.

Taking a walk earlier in the day, just because we can.  We walked past "ice cream's" side street and kept going down Redfern.  It has a decent hill and Abishai just went for it. I was totally scared a car would come by while he was cruising.  But thankfully, we have very quiet streets.  He also made it back up the hill mostly by himself.  He even said, "Up Hill" many times and leaned forward, putting all his weight into it.  And then when I pushed, he let his hands go and wouldn't steer, just to say, "Look, Ma, no hands!"

Yes, it's a comic book!  Check this out!  It's from 1959, and it's some of the first Flash comics with the Barry Allen rendition - the Silver Age.  Yes, I know way too much about this stuff.  BUT BUT BUT check this out!  Just like Doctor Who was at first intending to be a more educational scientific show, the comics seem to have been doing the same thing!  The writers took the time to explain the properties of the elements with this character Mr. Element aka Dr. Alchemy.

So, while I was reading this next to Justin, I was wondering who was created when, Batman, Superman, and Flash, and Captain America, and how it might have influenced the kids that lived throw those years.  Both Batman and Superman, along with Captain America, most definitely gave kids something to help them through their parents being busy with WWII.  The Flash is much older than Spider-Man and yet, why haven't I heard of the Flash until the last few years?  Interesting stuff to link history to pop culture.

Speaking of history, the movie we watched at the airport was the old TV show, "Tale Spin."  It's from the 80's or 90's.  I remember it well!

One last moment of Abishai playing around on Daddy's truck, just laying there like he owns the world, even putting his head on his arm like a formal portrait to prove his point.