Kaleb's Ohio Adventure

Last month, we were happy to have our nephew, Kaleb, come and stay with us for a week and half. It was nice for him to go somewhere all by himself and it was nice for us to have such a great helper for our four crazy munchkins. I think, over all, he had a good time but there were definitely moments when our boys were driving him crazy. It was also a learning experience for me. Because Kaleb is so much older than our boys, I often expected him to act more like an adult. Ten year old boys are great, but they are still not adults. In fact, I am discovering that boys may not actually become adults until well into their twenties. Anyway, I also learned that ten-year-old boys need to eat a lot. I would generally plan to feed Kaleb twice as much as what my boys eat, and they are no light-weights, and it was still not enough.
I would like to post some pictures from his visit and share some anecdotes. Hopefully this won't embarrass him too badly. :)
The boys were super excited for Kaleb to arrive. They immediately made a lot of noise and climbed all over him.

We went to Wendy's for dinner. Kaleb generously offered to help pay for everyone's food with his $10 Wendy's giftcard. We let him pay for his own only because he was so excited to use it, but we paid for everything else. Eating out was my first clue that Kaleb, while fabulous, is not an adult. He was great about helping the boys and sharing food with them, but he also showed them how they could pretend the ketchup pumps were cannons and yell things like "Fire in the hole!" before launching globs of ketchup into the trash container.

The following evening, we celebrated Kaleb's birthday. We made chocolate cupcakes and lined them up in a big "K" shape with candles.

 We had to have a "party" which meant that everyone had to wear party hats per the twins' instructions.

We gave Kaleb, who is a huge Buckeyes fan, an OSU hat and notebook as well as a copy of Tom Sawyer. After he opened his presents David John whispered loudly, "Mom! You forgot to give Kaleb his other present!"
"What other present? That's all the presents we had for him."
"The one with the toy in it!"
"We don't have a toy for him."
"What?!? But Mom, at my birthday you gived me the Elmo puzzle, the marker book, the Bulan (he means Mulan) movie, AND the drawing toy! That is not fair."
"It will be okay. His mom and dad gave him some presents before he came and they gave him a toy."
He wasn't totally convinced but seem pacified.

We went on several outings with Kaleb and I noticed that Kaleb's main concern in dressing himself was comfort, not societal norms. On one of his first days we were at a park when all the boys got involved in a serious water fight. Unfortunately, Kaleb was wearing his only pair of tennis shoes and they were completely soaked. They were not dry by the next day when we headed to the Great Lakes Science Center. I suggested that Kaleb wear his flipflops instead of wet shoes. He took my advice, but insisted on wearing his socks. I pointed out that socks with flipflops are not expected outside of Utah but he didn't seem to care. Here he is using the binoculars that he fell in love with on the outside deck of the science center. Note the fashionable footwear.

Kaleb also really enjoyed the exotic frogs exhibit and we gave him lots of time to explore the hands-on stuff for older kids while my brave friend Molly and I corralled the younger ones in the kiddie area. Kaleb never seemed to be ashamed of our motley group even though there were plenty of embarrassments to be had. David John chose to pee on the carpet at one point and because it had been so long since he had an accident I was without spare clothing. Since the sign on the museum door read "Shirt and shoes required" but said nothing about pants, we stayed. About that time we went to the splash area on the deck of the museum. David John was sporting his shirt, one of Benjamin's diapers and shoes. He managed to soak his shirt while playing out there and begged me to take it off. I explained to him that he was already missing his pants and there was no way I was going to let him run around in just a diaper and shoes. Several people snickered behind their hands.
Benjamin, meanwhile, was busy taking off his shoes and throwing them into the water. He also tried to climb into the water, but thankfully everything was too tall for him. After I fished Benjamin's shoes out, I turned around to find that David John had his hand up inside a broken light fixture mounted to the wall of the deck. As it turned out, David John had shoved not one, but three plastic alligators up inside said light fixture. Somehow, he got them all out without getting electrocuted.
After that, we went back inside and managed to stay for another hour or so. We only temporarily lost one child. We called it a success.

Another thing I learned about ten-year-old boys is that, to a four-year-old boy anyway, they are endlessly entertaining. One rainy morning Kaleb kept my oldest three captivated with nothing but playdough and stories that typically involved lava monsters consuming entire villages. The playdough made for satisfyingly squishable props, including the villagers. Kaleb also invented a game called "Super Pooper". I won't go through the finer points, but it involved pretending to do a certain bodily function and a lot of running around and screaming.

We had tons of rain while Kaleb was here, but we still managed to get outside during the brief breaks. Molly and her son, Matthew, accompanied us to the Chagrin Nature Center and we went on a lovely little hike to see buttermilk falls. Along the way, we crossed over a large pond which was, forgive the pun, hopping with frogs. All of the boys enjoyed looking for the camouflaged frogs and trying to find the biggest, the fattest, the ugliest, etc. Can you spot the frogs in this picture?

 The forest was gorgeous with all of the water-strewn leaves and the water fall was swollen with all the rain and really loud. Before we went home, we stopped at another bank of binoculars and checked out all of the waterfowl including this huge family of ducks. (Did I mention Kaleb LOVES binoculars?) Also, check out the Cavaliers emblem on the BACK of Kaleb's shorts. I didn't notice they were on backwards until we got home. I guess it's good that I don't spend a lot of time staring at people's bums, but maybe bad that I am so unobservant.

On one of the only sunny days we had, we hit the zoo. This time, I did catch Kaleb's backwards shorts before we left the house, mostly because there were some suspicious drawstrings flapping behind him when he walked. I didn't get any pictures at the zoo because I was afraid to do anything except try to keep track of where everyone was. In addition to my four and Kaleb we also had a 13-year-old, Joey, along for the ride. Oh, and we met up with my friend Tiffany and her four kids. Ten kids is a lot, even if the older ones are very helpful. It takes about 40 minutes to drive to the zoo and most of the way we were regaled with Kaleb's feats in videogaming. Ten-year-olds talk about video games a lot. I found that events in real life were often compared to video games. After the zoo, we hit Kaleb's favorite Cleveland ice cream place- the Honey Hut. Mmmmmm.

Did I mention we attended a lamb roast? It was awesome. I think in Kaleb's mind there was this equation: Dead animal + big fire = Awesome. Also, there was laser temperature checker. Best entertainment device ever.

Kaleb's finaly day in Ohio started out rainy, but we were finally able to hit the beach in the afternoon. Let me mention that ten-year-olds are a wealth of disgusting facts. My boys were riveted with Kaleb's knowledge of all things gross. They learned, "A booger is acid proof. If you had body armor made out of boogers almost nothing could hurt you." The fun fact we learned at the beach was that seagulls pull on each other's tails in order to force their seagull friend to vomit up whatever it just ate. The tail puller then rushes forward and eats the regurgitated food. Yummy! The boys all had a wonderful time, but I think the highlight for Kaleb was when he and Gabe found a half-eaten dead fish in the water (most likely vomited up by a seagull).

We really had a great time with this kid. He is really a sweet boy (that might be the most embarrassing thing I've said yet, but it's true). One thing he really wanted to do while he was here was help with the cooking. He even purchased a pancake mix and some fishsticks while we were out shopping so that he could help out more. He also made ramen noodles for lunch one day. I have to admit that things got a little messier when Kaleb cooked than when I did, but at least he didn't make anything that required chopping. He confessed to me, "My mom doesn't like it when I cut things up when I'm cooking. Probably because I always cut myself a lot. But my dad lets me." Oh, Kaleb. We love you and miss you. Also, we have your shirt. And three pairs of socks.

P.S. You may have to come back, Kaleb. After you made Ramen for the boys they tell me that mine doesn't taste as good. You'll have to give me your culinary secrets.